Sugar and Spice: Reinventedhttps://sugar-n-spiceandeverythingnice.com
Discovering the Spice of LifeFri, 22 Dec 2017 22:45:00 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/bd62b72cdcd28954147b4d200d7eaf61?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.pngSugar and Spice: Reinventedhttps://sugar-n-spiceandeverythingnice.com
Silence isn’t Golden: A Public Service Announcement about Suicide from A Friend “Left Behind”https://sugar-n-spiceandeverythingnice.com/2017/12/22/silence-isnt-golden-a-public-service-announcement-about-suicide-from-a-friend-left-behind/
https://sugar-n-spiceandeverythingnice.com/2017/12/22/silence-isnt-golden-a-public-service-announcement-about-suicide-from-a-friend-left-behind/#respondFri, 22 Dec 2017 22:43:16 +0000http://sugar-n-spiceandeverythingnice.com/?p=2331]]>This post is very difficult to write. In fact, I’m not sure that I should even be posting it. Unfortunately, the message behind it is one that is too important and must be shared.

I have struggled with depression in my lifetime. My life has been a series of roller coaster rides. I’ve had depression that lasted for months on end, but things always managed to get better and I moved on. This month, however, has been a particularly difficult one for me. I lost two friends to suicide in a matter of just a few weeks.

She was helping me to improve my quality of life.

I found out about the first death on Facebook in the week following Thanksgiving after she hadn’t returned any of my calls or texts. She was more than just a friend to me; she was also my neighbor and personal trainer. She was helping me to improve my quality of life. So when I tried to find out why she wasn’t returning my calls and texts and missed our appointment, I completely fell apart.

The next few weeks were not easy. I met with my health professionals and was only starting to heal when I got a call earlier this week at about 2:30 in the morning: another friend had passed away.

Suicide isn’t an easy topic to me to discuss. This may be because it has never affected me personally before. I knew it existed. I knew people who knew people who had done it. I even had a neighbor in my previous residence who had done it, but I have never been the one who was “left behind” before. Now that it has and now that I am, I feel the need to share my experience and reach out to others.

Suicide, or the act of intentionally taking one’s own life, is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. The symptoms my friends displayed included difficulty with interpersonal relationships, unbearable physical pain, and withdrawing from family and friends. Unfortunately, these are also symptoms of other difficulties, so it would have been difficult to know what they were thinking. In hindsight, all of the signs were there, all over the first friend’s Facebook page. The goodbyes, the unbearable pain; it was all there, and I can’t help but think that had I seen it sooner, I would have run over to her place and stopped her.

One of my best friends often tells me that she frequently calls a suicide prevention hotline. She has been calling this particular number for years. She is not suicidal and has told me that she would never even consider it for herself, but she calls the number when she needs someone to talk to. Sometimes we all just need an unbiased ear to vent to; someone who is not our mother, doctor or friend to unload on who will listen and advise without taking a side.

I am ending this post, since I am at a loss for words. I wish that there was something I could have done, but I know that their deaths are not my fault. Now I can only hope for comfort and strength for the families who are affected by their losses. I can educate, advocate and help others in the future.

If You Know Someone in Crisis
“Call the toll-free National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (NSPL) at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The service is available to everyone. The deaf and hard of hearing can contact the Lifeline via TTY at 1-800-799-4889. All calls are confidential. Contact social media outlets directly if you are concerned about a friend’s social media updates or dial 911 in an emergency. Learn more on the NSPL’s website.” The National Institute of Mental Health

Filed under: Fish, Food, recipe Tagged: featured1, food, recipes]]>https://sugar-n-spiceandeverythingnice.com/2017/09/27/thousand-island-salmon-with-jasmin-rice/feed/0imageiamaveronicaWhat can we do to defend equality?https://sugar-n-spiceandeverythingnice.com/2016/08/12/defend-equality/
https://sugar-n-spiceandeverythingnice.com/2016/08/12/defend-equality/#respondFri, 12 Aug 2016 21:37:11 +0000http://sugarnspicelily.wordpress.com/?p=2293]]>It may not be June anymore, but I saw a civil rights related post today on Facebook that got me asking myself, “What are we doing to defend equality amongst people?”

You might be watching the news to find out about more hate crimes around the world. Religious hate, racial hate, gender hate, and even hatred of nationalities are only a few of them. But what is also a “crime?” Intolerance and discrimination are two things that can turn into hate crimes if they are not stopped in advance.

The devastation that a single hate crime, intolerance or stereotype can create is too much for many to bear. A physically or mentally disabled person is bypassed for a job when his skills and education are matched with other applicants’. It may be illegal for an employer to do this, but it happens.

A Jewish person is considered stingy and rich, even in jest, when they are, in fact, the exact opposite.

A Hispanic teenager is told in the public high school cafeteria that “Hispanics are only there to clean up white people’s trash.” The result is a fight between the kids. (I heard about this after it happened at my school.) Even if the other boy was just angry at his peer, this is not okay. Immediate action was taken that day.

And then there is this one. The following photo depicts a conversation I had with a friend of mine more than a decade ago, though I can still remember how it went as if it were just yesterday:

So the question remains, what are we doing to defend equality amongst people in this country and everywhere around the world?

If we could just stop a person mid-joke or mid-comment and say, “I don’t want to hear this,” then that would be a start. I’m not saying that you should become an activist, or a picketer. What I’m saying is that if you can change something as simple as an uncomfortable topic of conversation, then you can channel that ability into so much more.

The power of speech is an amazing thing and here in the United States, we are free to use it. Guess what? It’s so simple! It all starts with a word. Just one.

NO.

Filed under: acceptance Tagged: acceptance, civil rights, freedom, love, tolerance]]>https://sugar-n-spiceandeverythingnice.com/2016/08/12/defend-equality/feed/02016-08-12-16.36.01.jpg.jpgiamaveronicaOn This Day in History: Sliced Breadhttps://sugar-n-spiceandeverythingnice.com/2016/07/07/on-this-day-in-history-sliced-bread/
https://sugar-n-spiceandeverythingnice.com/2016/07/07/on-this-day-in-history-sliced-bread/#respondThu, 07 Jul 2016 18:32:40 +0000http://sugar-n-spiceandeverythingnice.com/?p=2276]]>“It’s the best thing since sliced bread!” is a modern saying. But where does it come from?

“Otto Frederick Rohwedder was an American inventor and engineer who created the first automatic bread-slicing machine for commercial use. It was first used by the Chillicothe Baking Company.”

~https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Frederick_Rohwedder

Since then, we have seen pre-sliced bread in so many recipes and favorite meals.

Last night, I hosted a Fuller House viewing party. The turnout was better than I had hoped. It was great to see those little girls all grown up. It totally felt like a blast from the past.

By the next morning, parents who had grown up with Full House had taken to social media to complain about the show, owing to some inappropriate references and innuendos peppered throughout the series. They were all expecting the wholesomeness of its predecessor, so that they could watch it with their children, but they weren’t getting it.

Here is what I have to say about this:

We watched these little girls (Candace Cameron Bure, Andrea Barber and Jodie Sweetin) on television when we were little girls (and boys). But now we have grown up and so have they, so we can’t exactly put those little girls into a time capsule and just expect their characters to continue where they left off, can we? We all wanted to find out about the women these beloved characters had developed into today. We turned into women (and men) and so have they, adult humor and all.

Besides, IMDb has an excellent user-generated parental guide. Parents should be able to make informed decisions about what they feel comfortable allowing their children to watch. Someone told me that she and her husband watched Fuller House after the kids went to bed. This was a great idea because then they were able to decide if it was appropriate for their five year old, and have a date night at the same time.

Now, for the reason you clicked through to this post:

For my event, I presented my guests with a little dessert I had made up earlier in the day.

When I say that I “made it up,” I really mean that I actually MADE IT UP. This little baby came straight from my imagination.

No recipe. No guide. No problem.

It was such a hit that even my friend, who does not eat peanuts, requested to smell it up close!

Please comment below with your opinions, questions and suggestions. A photo gallery is at the bottom.

Thanksgiving at my parents’ is always nice. Every year, my Mom and Aunt cook some traditional dishes together and we serve ourselves, buffet style. We sit around the dining room table and share what we are thankful for.

Some things that I am always thankful for are:

Good health

Friends and family

My job

A great support network

The government for helping me out, financially (even though it’s not perfect, it does help)

A roof over my head and food in my fridge

Tonight, I bring to you a link to the spiced cider recipe that I posted three years ago. We enjoyed this warm, golden liquid with our meal this evening. It was served in a pretty China teapot.

(I don’t have a photo of the teapot right now. Just be sure to serve yours in a pitcher that can withstand hot temperatures.)

Filed under: apples, beverage Tagged: Apple, apple cider, apples, beverages, drinks, hot, spiced]]>https://sugar-n-spiceandeverythingnice.com/2015/11/26/thanksgiving-2015/feed/02015-11-26-17.51.14.jpg.jpegiamaveronicaAn Accidental Cider Projecthttps://sugar-n-spiceandeverythingnice.com/2015/11/04/an-accidental-cider-project/
https://sugar-n-spiceandeverythingnice.com/2015/11/04/an-accidental-cider-project/#respondWed, 04 Nov 2015 20:08:39 +0000http://sugar-n-spiceandeverythingnice.com/?p=1275]]>On a crisp Fall evening, I decided to open the more-than-half gallon of apple cider I had been keeping in my fridge for the past few weeks. It had been a good day, and I just wanted to relax with a refreshing drink at the end of it. What came out of the bottle was a bit of a surprise to me.

Accidentally Fermented Cider

I took the plastic lid off, and was immediately greeted by a burst of cider-y air, directly in the face! All this pressure had been building up inside of it causing its need to ‘explode’ upon release. When I poured it into the glass, it fizzed. I took a sip and found it to be bubbly and sweet, but I was not sure if it had become alcoholic or not, so I dumped it out until I knew for sure.

I have learned from my enjoyment of educating myself by browsing the Wonderful Wide Web a while ago that cider can be fermented and turned into hard cider after many months. Remembering this, I knew what to look for. After looking up the process again and to see if anyone else was asking this question (see “Did my apple cider go bad?“), I contacted Alstede Farms​, a farm in Chester, NJ, who had made the cider, just to be sure it was still safe for consumption. Farmer Kurt called me himself, about twenty minutes later, to explain exactly what was happening to my cider and exactly where in the process it was. Based on my description, he believed my cider to be somewhere between what it was, originally, and becoming apple cider vinegar. It is in the very beginning stages of fermentation, on it’s way to becoming an alcoholic beverage.

So, apparently, my farm-pressed apple cider had begun to ferment itself in my fridge. I was not intending for this to happen to mine, but after only a few weeks in the fridge, it turned itself into a sparkling cider!

My dear readers, has this ever happened to your apple cider before? What did you do? Did you dump it or drink it? Have you any experience in brewing your own hard cider? What was the end result? I look forward to hearing from you in the comments. I would LOVE to see your thoughts and ideas!

Look at all those sweet little bubbles!

Today, I enjoyed a refreshing glass of sparkling cider. Yum!

For more information on making your own “hard cider,” check out these links and the video.